Success is just desserts for pastry chef

A career based on good taste sees a woman follow her dream to France and back, Li Yingxue reports.

Dai Yuan has proven that she has exquisitely good taste. Gastronomy, rather than astronomy, was written in her stars since childhood. Her journey from information management student to a culinary course in France saw her create her own menu of success.

When she opened her own patisserie in her hometown Tianjin last year, she named it Reims Gare de l'Est.

This was an acknowledgment of the countless train journeys she took between Reims and Gare de l'est in Paris when she was mastering the technique of making desserts with a certain je ne sais quoi.

The decor of the shop, highlighting pink and blue, emanates a warm, welcoming and cozy atmosphere, exactly what she had imagined when she was a child with, you could say, sweet dreams.

Dai's mastery has been recognized. She won a medal at the 11th catering professional skills competition in Tianjin in September 2018.

But more than any awards her satisfied customers bear testimony to her skills.

As a child she was always attracted by cakes and desserts. Not just to eat, but how they were made.

Making birthday cakes for her family when she was in high school became routine.

She wanted to travel to France to sample delicacies and open her own dessert shop.

The dream was put aside because learning the craft of making desserts in France seemed impossible.

She chose instead to study information management and information system at the Tianjin University.

After graduation in 2011, she could have worked in the sector but those sweet dreams kept telling her that her future lay in food.

With support from her family, she started to learn French to prepare.

"During the pursuit of my dreams, the most important person was my father, who gave me unqualified support. He was my biggest supporter," the 31-year-old says.

She remembers when she began to take the advanced French course which started at 9 am on weekdays. She had to get out of bed at 5 am, take the train from Tianjin to Beijing and rush to subway Line 2 to get to the classroom on time.

"I still remember there was a long staircase next to the escalator out of Chaoyangmen station on Line 2, but I never had time to wait in line to take the escalator so I had to run up the stairs to save time," Dai recalls.

During the last days of her French course she had to stay in Beijing. Each day after class she would continue to study at a cafe near where she lived until midnight.

"It was around Christmas. I never felt afraid when I walked on the empty streets in Beijing at midnight, because I was so happy that it was on my way to fulfill my dream," she says.

"I didn't feel cold either, because the feeling of holding my dream in my hand kept me warm."

Dai continued to study French in France when she went there in 2014. She applied for a pastry course at Le Cordon Bleu.

Founded in Paris in 1895, Le Cordon Bleu is the largest network of culinary and hospitality schools in the world training 20,000 students from more than 100 nationalities each year.

"When I enrolled in the program and met my classmates from all over the world, I found out that there were so many people that shared the same dream as me," she says.

"My dream is to use my hands to bring others the flavor of happiness."

The course was intense.

"The chefs were so strict that if we came to the classroom with a spot of sauce on our clothes, we were kicked out of the classroom until we changed into a clean outfit," Dai says.

Seasonal ingredients took priority. When the strawberry season arrived, Dai would visit all the dessert shops in town to try their desserts with the fruit.

Living in a small room in Paris with only a loft bed with a rudimentary desk, Dai bought an oven to put on the desk to sharpen her skills.

When she was preparing for the "chocolate exam", she had to get up at 3 am to practice heating and cooling the chocolate to make sure she would get the right consistency later in the day in front of her tutors and classmates.

"It was summertime in Paris, and there was no air conditioner. Temperature is king in cooking and only at 3 am was the temperature cool enough to make the chocolate correctly."

Dai had to pass three levels of exams to graduate. Each test had a 10-dessert list, and the students were chosen at random to make one for the judges within a limited time.

After passing all her exams, Dai got an internship at L'Eclair de Genie, one of the most popular puff pastry shops in France.

Dai's work was to make the fillings.

"If you tried eclairs during the time I interned there, the fillings must have been made by me," Dai says proudly.

Dai also enrolled in a one-year program on French cuisine at the same school.

She recalls her time at the culinary school as nervous but happy, and that she, literally, got her fingers burned by the oven.

Her kitchen, her kingdom

Because each ingredient needs to be measured precisely without any distractions, Dai does not talk when she is in her kitchen, nor take phone calls.

"The reason food can heal is that the flavor can bring people happiness, and I want to pass on this happiness," she says.

In 2018, Dai moved back to Tianjin and opened her own pastry shop, finally realizing her childhood dream.

Many of the plates, candle holders and ornate silverware were brought back by Dai from a flea market when she was studying at Reims. The oven in her kitchen is also from France.

For late autumn, Dai recommends apple tart and chestnut cake.

For the tart, she picks the apples by herself and chooses three different types to vary the flavor and texture.

She also grows mint on her balcony to use in her desserts to enhance the sweet flavor.

French desserts depend on taste and precision, she says, but the two most important aspects are heart and the quality of the ingredients.

Once she spent an entire night making a birthday cake for a client, and she knows it was worth it.

"Every effort you make will be reflected in the food," Dai says.